I'll Always Be
by Tea and a Notebook
Summary: This is a piece based off of "Shadow," part one of the season finale. Daniel makes a call from the psych ward. (I wrote it immediately after watching the episode for the first time a few weeks ago, so I was in a ball of feels so don't judge me for the awful writing.) DISCLAIMER: I don't own Perception.
1. Chapter 1

The longer you are a resident, and the more progress you make as a patient, the more privileges you are awarded.

Dr. Daniel J. Pierce had admitted himself exactly two months ago, and was now being granted his first phone call.

He didn't want to take it.

There was only one person with whom he wished to speak. She was also the one person he never wanted to see again.

Kate.

Kate Moretti. Daniel was ashamed even saying her name. She had seen him at his worst, and there was no going back. No going back to the days when they could pretend his condition was just a quirk, an occasional bout of talking to walls and staring into emptiness.

No. There was nothing left for them.

How could he have ever, even for a moment, considered the possibility that Kate felt... _something,_ for him? How could he have ever thought that this strong, smart, beautiful woman would ever want him? He, Dr. Daniel J. Pierce, was weak. He was broken. He did not deserve her. He did not deserve anyone.

The door opened. A smiling, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed nurse poked her head in, pushing a wheelchair into the room. "Daniel?" Her smile did not waver. "Daniel, honey, it's time for your phone call. Come on now."

Daniel reached the nurse and allowed himself to be whisked down the hall. He was numb. He would call Lewicki. Yes, that made sense. Lewicki. The kid deserved some news. The attendant pushed Daniel into the phone booth and handed him the receiver. With another smile, she stepped out of the booth to give him some "privacy."

_"Alright. Lewicki,"_ Daniel thought. He began to punch in the digits, but before he knew it he was dialing her number and it was ringing and before he could stop himself, before he could hang up, she answered.

"Hello?"

That voice. Daniel had gone sixty days without hearing that voice.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

Daniel tried to respond, but his throat stuck. He stuttered, he choked, he swallowed. Finally,

"Kate."


	2. Chapter 2

There was a long, painful silence. Daniel gripped the phone like it was the only thing keeping him from slipping away. It might have been. Then,

"Oh, Daniel! Daniel! How are you? Oh my god, I had no idea that I wouldn't be able to speak to you and, geez, Max is going mad not hearing from you, and I had half a mind to burst in there flashing my badge because I can't handle-"

"Kate, I am so sorry," Daniel cut her off.

Kate was taken aback. After a short pause, she said," What are you-?'

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I lost it, I'm sorry I dragged you into this, I'm sorry for making your life more complicated than it already was, I'm sorry you walked into Neuroscience all those years ago and I'm sorry you never really walked out."

"I don't-"

Daniel wasn't finished. "And I'm sorry, I am so sorry, that I'm... I'm broken, and I'm sorry I love you, because oh god, I love you so much, Kate, Katie I love you and I'm sorry." He leaned against the wall of the booth and cried, hot tears searing his skin.

"Daniel, I..."

Daniel hated himself, wanted to end the call before he was forced to hear her next words.

He heard a sniffle from the other end. He shot up and pressed the phone to his ear. What...?

Kate was crying quietly into the phone.

"Oh my god, Daniel, if you don't know that... that I love you, then you are not the brilliant man I met in my freshman year." She laughed a soft, shaky laugh and began to speak faster, breaking into sobs. "Because how could I not? How could I not love you? That has been one simple fact of my life for, for years, that I love you. And I am not sorry. Daniel, how could I be sorry that I met you? That you came into my life? I will never be sorry. You are you, and I am me, and I love you and that will never change and I will _never_ be sorry." That speech seemed to be all that Kate could handle. She broke down completely, crying, sobbing, whispering "I love you" again and again. Daniel was crying, pawing at the receiver, rocking in his chair, desperate to see her, to hold her.

The nurse rushed in and placed a calming hand on Daniel's shoulder. "That's enough," she said firmly.

"I love you, Daniel!" Kate shouted as the attendant moved to hang up the phone. "I'll be here when you come home, okay? I'll always be-!"

Click.


End file.
